February’s forgotten vanguard

The myth of Russia’s spontaneous revolution

by Jason Yanowitz

International Socialist Review | Issue #75, January 2011

This Russian revolution poster emphasizes the unity of peasants, soldiers and workers. Its title reads: “Together for the Common Cause”. Unknown creator, October 1917, Russia.
IWM (Q 70862), http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205316192.

ON INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day, February 23, 1917, after almost three years of brutal war, women textile workers in Petrograd illegally struck over a food shortage. Soon other workers joined in the strike. By the end of the day, 75,000 workers were on strike. On the following day, 200,000 workers struck. The next, the strike was general, with almost 400,000 participating, including students, teachers, and white-collar workers across Petrograd.1
Then on February 27, the military garrisons in Petrograd revolted, coming over to the side of the revolution and opening the armories to the workers. The police hid. Over the next few days, the revolution spread to neighboring cities and garrisons. By March 2, it was over. The Tsar abdicated the throne. His brother abdicated the following day. Three hundred years of autocracy had ended. The workers formed soviets, or workers’ councils; the bourgeoisie, the Provisional Government. Over the next several months, two classes struggled for power, until the October Revolution overthrew the Provisional Government and created the first workers’ state.
How did a centuries-old dynasty end in a little over a week?

Fifty-five years after Lumumba’s assassination, Congolese see no relief

by Ann Garrison

Reuters

Democratic Republic of Congo’s ruler Joseph Kabila was constitutionally supposed to leave office on 19 December 2016. He did not. There were no elections. Instead, an agreement brokered with the help of the Catholic Church extended Kabila’s rule to December this year when elections of his successor will be held. In the following interview, Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, explains the political situation in DRC and America’s endless meddling.

Ann Garrison: Maurice Carney, could you summarize what has happened in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the last two months, while most of our attention was fixed on Trump, Russia, and Syria?

Maurice Carney: Certainly. On December 19th, President Joseph Kabila, according to Congo’s constitution, was supposed to step down. Over the past several years, he had demonstrated that he was going to stay in power by any means necessary, including killing Congolese. In January 2015, about four dozen Congolese were killed by Kabila’s security forces as they protested his trying to put measures in place to stay in power beyond December 19, 2016.

On September 19, 2016, when Congolese demonstrated in the streets, he killed over 50 of them with his security forces.

We walk out of the lab and into the streets

The March for Science is coming this spring

A Journal of People report

The March for Science will be organized on April 22, 2017, the Earth Day. The march will be held in Washington D.C., and around the world.
The March for Science said:
On April 22, 2017, we walk out of the lab and into the streets.

MH370 search helps know possible oil fields

A Journal of People report

The deep-sea sonar search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) may not have found the lost plane, but has helped know more about formation of the land beneath the Indian Ocean over millions of years and possible oil fields.
Australia’s national geoscience agency Geoscience Australia will soon release detailed sonar mapping of 120,000 square kilometers of seabed, which was searched for the wreckage of the Boeing 777 that vanished with 239 passengers and crew on March 8, 2014.
The unique information about plate tectonics would interest geoscientists and oil and gas explorers, said Australian National University marine geologist Neville Exon, who has advised Geoscience Australia on the sonar data.

A ‘lost’ continent in the Indian Ocean

A Journal of People report

Wits University

One lost continent, hiding underneath a tropical holiday destination, has been found by scientists.
Deep at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, a team of scientists, led by South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand, has found pieces of the lost, ancient continent.
The lava-covered piece of continent, dubbed ‘Mauritia,’ was found under the island of Mauritius.

WHO rewards Cuba’s Henry Reeve Contingent for international solidarity efforts

Granma | 01 February, 2017

Photo: Granma

On January 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) awarded its Prize for Public Health to Cuba’s Henry Reeve Contingent, in recognition of its international solidarity efforts combating natural disasters and serious epidemics.

According to a statement released by the Cuban Embassy in Geneva, cited by PL, the decision was unanimously reached during the 140th session of the WHO Executive Board.

Established in 2009, the Doctor Lee Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health recognizes the work of people, institutions and organizations that make a significant contribution to the field of public health.